At least 20 Palestinian families have been forced to start leaving Mughayir Al Dir, the last remaining herding community in eastern periphery of Ramallah after Israeli settlers planted an outpost next to their homes last Thursday evening. This follows the forcible transfer of seven other communities in this area as a result of settler violence and harassment coupled with Israeli authorities’ inaction or support. Palestinians have now been completely pushed out of these areas, enabling Israeli settlement expansion and consolidation of annexation of the occupied West Bank.

Also on Thursday night, mobs of settlers torched dozens of Palestinian homes and vehicles and terrorised the town of Bruqin, Salfit. No settler was arrested by Israeli security forces, despite the fact they have been deployed in the town during the past week conducting searches, arrests, and demolitions.

OHCHR calls Israeli authorities and other countries with influence to stop this trend and for steps to be taken to facilitate the safe return Palestinians to their homes. As the ICJ ruled in its Advisory Opinion in July last year, Israel is under an obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible, and must cease immediately all new settlement activities, and evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 

Israel must take immediate steps to end the apparent collective punishment of Palestinians in the West Bank. Following the killing of a pregnant Israeli woman by armed Palestinians on 14 May near Brukhin settlement, Salfit, Israeli security forces closed all entrances to the Palestinian villages of Kafr Al-Dik and Bruqin, placed all residents under curfew denying them access to supplies, schools and critical health services, carried out mass arrests accompanied by physical assault, and confiscated and damaged land and property including schools. On 15 May, an Israeli minister publicly called on Israel to “flatten” the two Palestinian communities and make them look like “Shja'iya and Tel Sultan” in Gaza.

Israeli settlers went on a rampage against Palestinian communities. During multiple attacks against Palestinians across the West Bank in the past days, which were often carried out in the presence of Israeli security forces, settlers reportedly set fire to at least one Palestinian home and 15 vehicles in Salfit governorate alone, threw stones and damaged several Palestinian vehicles on the Huwwara and Za’tara roads, Nablus, and raided Palestinian herding communities north of Jericho.

On 15 May, in the South Hebron Hills, settlers closed the northern entrance to Masafer Yatta for at least six hours, effectively blocking access to several villages, and on 19 May destroyed the wind turbine used to generate electricity in Qawawis, leaving the entire village without power.

According to information received by the UN Human Rights office OPT, on 18 May, after arresting several men in the town, Israeli security forces shot and killed a 36-year-old man from Bruqin. The deceased was reportedly arrested and detained for more than an hour before being killed while in IF custody, although ISF say that he was killed while running at them with an unidentified object. Israeli security forces is reportedly using as a military post the house where the killed man lived with his wife and children along with other homes in Bruqin.

In parallel, settler groups also called for revenge and escalated attacks against Palestinians, taking advantage of the situation to establish new outposts, in their continued efforts to forcibly displace increasing numbers of Palestinians and take over their land.

Since 16 May, Israeli bulldozers have been uprooting trees in the area in Bruqin after the Israeli army seized, under military orders, land belonging to the village, purportedly to improve security for settlers. On 19 May, the head of settlements regional council announced establishing an office in Bruqin, where groups of settlers have set up several tents and toilets, and called for demolition of Palestinian property and the establishment of a new settlement in the area. Also on 19 May,Israeli security forces demolished a three-story Palestinian home in the town, citing a lack of Israeli building permit.

In an another extremely concerning development, on 18 May, settlers brought dozens of sheep and started building animal pens and other structures for the establishment of a new outpost in close proximity to Palestinian homes in Mughayyir Al-Dir, Ramallah, with concerns that the move is aimed at forcibly displacing the last Palestinian herding community remaining in the area.

The Office is deeply concerned that such actions are directed at displacing Palestinians from their land and consolidating Israel's presence in and transfer of its population into the occupied territory. As the ICJ found in its Advisory Opinion in July last year, Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible. It must cease immediately all new settlement activities and evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 

The UN human rights office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is alarmed by reports that the Israeli security cabinet on 11 May decided to resume land registration in Area C of the occupied West Bank. The registration, which was suspended in 1968, appears to be the latest tool used by Israel to acquire Palestinian land and consolidate the unlawful annexation of the West Bank.

The process of land registration or settlement of land title, under which Israel purportedly seeks to definitively establish land ownership registration in favour of Israeli settlers, represents an exercise of sovereignty prohibited in occupied territory. The office has in the past raised concerns that the settlement of title in East Jerusalem, ongoing since 2018, has been conducted in a discriminatory manner and has resulted in the seizure of Palestinian lands and property for the establishment of Israeli settlements, while placing Palestinians at risk of evictions. Similar concerns arise with any process of settlement of title in Area C of the occupied West Bank.

The announcement by the Israeli government cannot be separated from recent legislative initiatives to further extend Israeli sovereignty, including through allowing Israeli individuals to purchase land in the West Bank, which Israel, as the Occupying Power should hold in trust for the Palestinian population, the dramatic intensification of violent and discriminatory practices against Palestinians such as demolitions and movement restrictions, and the continued expansion of settlements and settlement infrastructure. These policies have been accelerated in the shadow of the escalation of hostilities in Gaza and have, along with relentless settler attacks, led to the forcible transfer of thousands of Palestinians, particularly from Area C, and are changing the geography and demography of the West Bank.

If pursued, land registration by the occupying power would likely result in further expropriation of Palestinian land and natural resources in violation of the property rights of Palestinians, as well as other rights such as the rights to housing and shelter, food, and the benefit of Israeli settlers and settlements.

In this context, such a land registration exercise would also be in violation of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power, as it would not only be exceeding its limited legislative powers but would further entrench 50 years of unlawful transfer by the occupying power of its population into the occupied territory.